The flight down to Penang was uneventful, and we were picked up at the airport (along with 3 other visa runners, including a Danish fellow from Pattaya with whom I had done my last visa run to Penang 6 months ago) by the visa service. We dropped off our paperwork at the visa service's office, and were in our hotel room within a short time.
Epril huddles under the covers to
escape the freezing air conditioning.The hotel room simply sucked. (The visa service would apologize afterwards:) The Deepavali (The Indian festival of lights) holiday was starting in Malaysia, and all the regular hotels were filled. The bathroom was straight out of Penang's colonial days, the air conditioning was freezing and wouldn't turn off, and the 12-inch television screen only showed 2 channels (no English).
Well, no big deal, since we weren't going to be spending too much time in the room: I had rented a motorcycle from the visa service, and Epril and I were immediately off on a trip around the island. (With a stop at KFC for lunch along the way.)
The tower-lined coast of Penang,
looking Northwest from Georgetown.Penang is still the same lovely island I remembered from my last visit here, with the ghostly husks of mansions of the colonial era 100 years ago dotted throughout the city along some of the most gorgeous tree-lined boulevards on the planet. Georgetown, the island's main city, really could be the world's best place to go to see Asian colonial architecture, but unfortunately most of the period shop houses and other old buildings are not being maintained and are very dilapidated. So now, the best place is Luang Prabhang in Laos, its colonial architecture frozen in time as a United Nations World Heritage Site.
The ride around the island is always something I enjoy as the road is beautifully maintained as it winds up the mountains through the jungle to beautiful tropical vistas, but unfortunately there was a misty rain that faded in and out throughout the ride around the island, and we had to stop several times to dry off.
The gorgeous tree-lined boulevards
of Georgetown.We rode back over the huge mountains in the center of the island, and came back down into Georgetown through one of the most memorable sites in Penang: A lovely, tropical valley sloping down towards the city with a gorgeous windy twisty road... and in this valley had been built a dozen of the largest most grotesque apartment buildings I had ever seen, their bare cement stained black with mold, pollution, and age. It was such a weird contrast.
We got back to the hotel room and took a bath and a nap. Then, at 6:00 we went out to dinner. We decided to eat at a little second-floor Japanese restaurant where the staff were friendly and the food (and sake) were very good. (The restaurant didn't accept Thai baht, and I had to go running up and down Penang Boulevard after dinner to find a place that would change money.
After that, we went to a pub called Soho, and I had a pint of Guinness, and Epril had a vodka tonic. After one drink, we were both ready to sleep, and went back to the hotel and climbed under the blankets in the freezing air.
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